Ones Just Fall Short

After a successful previous weekend Maldon went into Saturday’s game with confidence.

After losing the toss Maldon were put into the field and at 113 for 1 after excellent but unrewarding opening spells from Matt Wild and Matt Anderson and with young inform allrounder Mackenzie Jones injured bowling just his second over things looked bleak.

It was left to the experienced spin duo of Toby Pugh and Ian Elliott to steady the ship. With Pugh making the first breakthrough and then Jimmy Ainscough’s quick thinking and agility ensuring a vital run out of the dangerous Kyran Young Maldon found themselves back in the game.

Elliott then out thought the inform Goff and Pugh followed that with three more wickets to put Maldon back in control of the game. Mistley gave some resistance towards the end of the innings but Wild with a strong second spell and Martyn Coker wrapped up the Mistley innings short of the 200 mark and thus giving Maldon a realistic and gettable chase of 196.

So far this season Maldon’s strength has been in their batting and there was no reason to think that today would be any different especially after openers Bryant and Ainscough saw off a sharp spell from the Mistley overseas fast bowler.

Unfortunately after Ainscough was caught by a fielder accidently standing in the wrong position it led to a series of wickets to fall. Some from the good consistent bowling of the Mistley bowlers and others through some uncharacteristic poor shots. Maldon never really looked likely to match or compete with the Mistley score and were eventually all out for 121 despite some late resistance from Coker.

Maldon were left to rue a missed opportunity after an excellent performance in the field and will look to bounce back at home to Hadleigh next Saturday.